FIRED UP: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2005

UU World: The Magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Fall 2005 by Skinner, Donald E, Walton, Christopher L

THE SPONTANEOUS IGNITION OF A CONGA X line in the closing ceremony of the UUA General Assembly in Fort Worth, Texas, signified that Assembly-goers had been paying attention. For five days and nights in June, speakers and musicians and dramatists had been exhorting Unitarian Universalists to get fired up with social activism and enthusiasm for their faith.

The Rev. Dr. Patrick O'Neill introduced the theme in his sermon at the Service of the Living Tradition by using the story of Henry David Thoreau's retreat to Walden Pond and his subsequent reengagement with the political world as a lesson for UUs. Unitarian Universalist congregations have been in several decades of "Waldenesque retreat from effective activist engagement in the critical moral struggles of our time," O'Neill said. "Walden, our beloved liberal religious haven from the world, Walden is on fire! And it is time for Unitarian Universalists to catch fire, too."

Speaking directly to the new ministers just recognized in the service, O'Neill said: "Do not seek here amid these thousand-plus congregations for ministries of quietude, or for more churches in the woods, where you can take shelter in theological reverie while the social policies of our country are increasingly determined to protect the already privileged and to ignore the already deprived. Ignite, young colleagues, I beseech you! Catch fire!"

Although frustration with conservative politics in the United States-and in Texas-clearly marked an Assembly that denounced torture, sharply criticized U.S. prison practices, and mobilized against the death penalty, these strong stands weren't nearly as surprising as the fact that this G.A. seemed more, well, religious than usual.

"The primary challenge facing religious liberals ... is a spiritual one," the Rev. Robert Hardies, minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian, in Washington, D.C., preached at the Sunday morning worship service. "Until the religious left can offer all those seekers out there a compelling story of how their lives can be filled with meaning and transformed by love, we don't stand a chance. The answer to the marginalization of the religious left will not be spin; it will be fire."

Other speakers referred back to Hardies's and O'Neill's sermons, but what really amplified the mood was the music. Singing the Journey-the UUA's new 75-song supplement to Singing the Living Tradition-was introduced in every plenary session and worship service of the Assembly, often with a full band playing jazz or calypso or rock as needed. People swayed, clapped, and danced while singing spirited pop songs like "Lean on Me" and "Turn the World Around" or new UU hymns like "Standing on the Side of Love."

Choir leader Jeanne Gagn�, one of the songbook's editors and music director of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Middleboro, Massachusetts, says she was the last person in the arena to know that, as she was directing "Dance with Me" in the closing ceremony, a conga line had formed in the youth section and proceeded down onto the main floor until nearly all the open floor space was filled with lines of jubilant, swaying people of all ages. "I turned around from directing the choir," she said, "and almost fell out of my shoes."

The new songbook was so popular that the UUA Bookstore sold all 800 copies it brought to GA. By mid-July the entire first printing had sold out, and a second printing is under way. (For a review, see page 59; for additional information and audio samples, go to www.uua.org/publications/music.)

Another religious theme arose from presentation of a three-year study, Engaging Our Theological Diversity, by the Commission on Appraisal, an independent review panel elected by the General Assembly. The Commission concluded that tentativeness in articulating what UUs are about religiously may be our greatest liability. The Rev. Earl K. Holt III, minister of King's Chapel in Boston and a Commission member, introduced the report by alluding to the final paragraph of the UUA Principles, which says: "Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision." Holt asked:

Just what is the "faith" that is enriched and ennobled by the religious pluralism for which we are grateful? How do we deepen our religious understanding and expand our theological vision? And, if we mean to say to everyone, "you belong," just what is it that we are inviting them to belong to?

The Commission urged a "denomination-wide effort ... to develop and articulate a deeper understanding of who Unitarian Universalists are as a religious people," urged congregations to focus intentionally on facilitating greater dialogue about theology and shared purpose, and proposed development of a variety of resources to help.

The published report was the UUA Bookstore's number 2 bestseller after Singing the Journey. One copy of the published report has been sent to each congregation, and a Web site-www.uua.org/coa /TheoDiversity-offers additional resources.